WASHINGTON – Defense isn’t sexy. It’s particularly unsightly the way Syracuse plays it, and the way it makes the other team look. But as every coach will recite, it wins championships.

It won Syracuse the NCAA Tournament East Region championship, as Marquette bricked and fumbled its way out of a chance for its first Final Four in 10 years. Instead, the Orange, and Jim Boeheim’s signature 2-3 zone, will go to Atlanta next weekend, thanks to a 55-39 smothering Saturday at Verizon Center.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is heading to his fourth Final Four. (AP Photo)

The last time Boeheim, his team and his defense reached the national semifinal, also in 2003, they won their only national championship. For Boeheim, it is the fourth time he has reached the Final Four.

Next Saturday, the Orange will play the winner of Sunday’s Michigan-Florida Elite Eight game.

Syracuse, the No. 4 seed in the East, inflicted similar damage to No. 1 seed Indiana in the Sweet 16 two days earlier, but this performance made that game look like the now-departed Dunk City bunch from Florida Gulf Coast. The Orange needed very little offense, and produced little against Marquette’s own multiple schemes – but at the other end, the third-seeded Golden Eagles were stopped in their tracks.

Familiarity with the zone from their Big East rival days was no help whatsoever. Marquette shot 26.9 percent in the first half and turned it over eight times, and got exponentially worse in the second half – a ghastly 3-for-28 from the floor. For the game, they went 3-for-25 on three-pointers and shot 22.6 percent overall (12-for-53 from the floor).

Senior James Southerland led Syracuse with 16 points, including the three-pointer with 2:20 left that all but sealed it at 50-36. C.J. Fair added 13 and Michael Carter-Williams 12 – scoring 17 of their combined 25 points in the second half as Syracuse pulled away.